For the first time, the Dow Journalism Program is offering a course on “Video Storytelling” this semester. Taught by visiting journalism instructor Buddy Moorehouse, the class seeks to cultivate students’ journalistic portfolios and provide them with valuable practical experience.
This is Moorehouse’s first time teaching a collegiate journalism course, though he has guest lectured several times at the college in a sports writing course taught by John J. Miller, director of the journalism program.
“We’d like to build on our excellence in print and radio and move into video, creating, and building a new generation of broadcast journalists, documentary filmmakers, and others who excel in this medium,” Miller said.
Moorehouse’s professional experience has prepared him for his current job: Print journalist and editor of 27 years, co-founder of documentary filmmaking company Stunt3 Multimedia, and writer and director of two Emmy-nominated documentaries, “Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game,” (2012) and “The Legend of Pinky Deras: The Greatest Little-Leaguer There Ever Was” (2010).
Senior Regan Meyer, a student in the class, said Moorehouse is “very knowledgeable and knows how to translate his skills into video.”
“Sometimes when people teach their first class, they can be very hard on you,” Meyer noted, “but he’s a very chill and fun person, so he makes the three-hour long evening class enjoyable.”
Senior Stefan Kleinhenz noted that Moorehouse’s journalistic experience is inspiring and makes for an exciting classroom experience.
“Learning from someone like Mr. Moorehouse, and actually making videos of our own, makes me fall in love with the craft,” Kleinhenz said.
Kleinhenz said he hopes the video element of journalism remains a permanent part of the journalism program, as it complements the existing print and radio aspects, and believes that professors such as Moorehouse will make the excitement of video storytelling contagious.
“He’s good in the classroom. Watching him talk about his career and craft, I came to believe he’d be a first-rate teacher for our students,” said Miller. “He understands that the best way to learn how to make videos is to make them, and that’s a theme of his course.”
Moorehouse said he was drawn to the unique aspects and practical experience of Hillsdale’s journalism minor, adding that he’s always loved everything about Hillsdale’s mission of a liberal arts education, which inspired the purpose behind the course and the types of assignments students will complete.
“All of the projects that we do are going to be stories about Hillsdale College. There’s a double benefit with the class, not just to teach the students how to tell stories with video but to collect and present these stories,” Moorehouse said.
The class of six students, mostly journalism minors, produce weekly short videos, such as a two to three-minute student profile film. The final assignment will be to create a documentary on the Tangerine Bowl in 1955, when Hillsdale College’s undefeated football team declined its invitation to play because organizers refused to allow Hillsdale’s African-American athletes to compete.
Along with this feature, which Moorehouse hopes to screen publicly in April, students will have the opportunity to present several of their individual videos made during the semester.
While the course is titled “Video Storytelling,” it also involves the technical side of video journalism and the necessary filming, writing, and editing skills. Moorehouse said he wants to help his students become professional journalists and aims to equip them to become skilled storytellers able to effectively work with different media forms.
One of the ways Moorehouse keeps things practical but professional is by teaching students to film and edit all of their mini-documentaries on their phones and laptops. It reflects his belief that the best video journalists aren’t made through expensive equipment or professional cinematography skills but through the ability to grasp basic reporting techniques and effectively employ audio-visual mediums to tell a story.
“We want to also get across the idea that to tell a story and video you don’t need expensive equipment,” Moorehouse said. “You don’t need a film crew and you don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell a story; you basically just need your phone and you can shoot everything that you need. You put it in your computer and put it together and you’ll have a professional looking documentary that will effectively tell a story.”
Meyer noted that it hasn’t necessarily been difficult to translate her written journalism skills into video format. What has been difficult for Meyer is viewing her work objectively after working on a project for hours on end.
“I cast my video to my AppleTV while I was editing it and my friends gave me their feedback,” Meyer said.
She also said that the course’s relaxed environment, Moorehouse’s upbeat personality, and the small class size contribute to the camaraderie and constructive criticism of the video presentations.
The course is currently a one-time elective, but Miller said he hopes it will become a regular feature of the journalism program’s curriculum.
Moorehouse says the course can help aspiring journalists.
“Video is one of the necessary tools that any journalist is going to need going forward,” Moorehouse said. “I think that the days of somebody just being a print journalist are gone, so you’re going to need to know how to tell a story in a lot of different ways.”
But even students who take the video course and don’t end up video or print journalism, Moorehouse said they will still benefit from learning how to communicate in a media-dominated culture.
“When you tell a story in a video format you’re able to make it a little more emotional because of all the things you have available to you,” Moorehouse said, “And then it even becomes a little more memorable.”
